Welcome to the first quarterly newsletter for Caro-COOPS. We are now entering our third year of operations, and we are excited to bring you the latest news and updates on coastal and ocean observations, analyses, and information products we've been working on. We want to hear your thoughts and suggestions on any of the topics below, so please send us an email at info@caro-coops.org.

Latest Redeployment of Five Mooring Stations

We recently redeployed five mooring stations, and all of our buoys and water level stations are now outfitted with meteorological sensor packages. The buoy at station CAP2 also has a newly installed visibility sensor. (In March, we have been experiencing technical difficulties with our offshore buoys, SUN3 and CAP3, but are working to resolve this problem as quickly as possible).

We are forwarding all applicable oceanographic and meteorological measurements to the National Data Buoy Center (http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Maps/Southeast.shtml). Our meteorological measurements should soon be available via their "Dial-a-Buoy" telephone service, and will be forwarded to NOAA's National Weather Service for inclusion in weather radio broadcasts.

Caro-COOPS & NOAA's National Water Level Observing Network (NWLON)

Three Caro-COOPS shoreline stations — SUN1, CAP1, and FRP1 — are collecting real-time water level measurements in cooperation with the NOAA NWLON. Technical guidance is being provided by NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) (http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov). The incorporation of Caro-COOPS data into the National Ocean Service (NOS) CO-OPS federal backbone is an illustration of the kinds of productive interactions that will be a prominent feature of the national Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS).

The stations are also collecting wind, barometric pressure, relative humidity, and air and water temperature data. A typical station includes a weatherproof data collection platform box, tower with meteorological sensors, and the protective well with acoustic sensor on top that measures the water level (visit our website at www.carocoops.org to see images).

Working to Develop "Carolinas Coast" Website

Because up-to-date information on marine conditions is available from a variety of sources, there is a need for clear, coordinated delivery of this information to a general user community of mariners, educators, beach-goers, and other prospective ocean and coastal user groups in the Carolinas. Caro-COOPS and the Coastal Ocean Research and Monitoring Program (CORMP) of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (www.cormp.org), in cooperation with the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS; www.seacoos.org) and the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA; www.secoora.org), are now working with the NOAA National Weather Service Forecast Office in Wilmington, NC, to design, develop, and implement a "Carolinas Coast" website. The website will serve as the new template for the Wilmington Office's "Marine" webpage (www.erh.noaa.gov/er/ilm/marine/). The proposed website will include current/recent weather and ocean conditions, forecasted conditions (including hazard alerts), and oceanographic models. This partnership between NOAA's NWS and the Carolinas coastal and ocean observing community builds on each group's strengths in meeting the needs of the maritime community.

Update on Storm Surge Modeling Efforts

Last year, Caro-COOPS began working with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division (SCEMD) to improve hurricane storm surge forecasts, and to provide state and local officials with the information needed to focus on mitigation, preparedness, and prevention measures. In the event of an approaching hurricane, the Coastal Atmosphere and Ocean Modeling Group at North Carolina State University's Coastal Fluid Dynamics Laboratory generates storm surge forecasts based on updated hurricane track forecasts issued by the National Hurricane Center. The data management group based at the Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences at the University of South Carolina transforms these forecasts into useful information products, and ensures the timely delivery of updated information to SCEMD.

During the 2004 summer hurricane season, we were able to test this workflow during the approaches of Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, and Jeanne. During this hurricane "off-season," we are working to pre-generate storm surge forecasts based on a wide variety of potential landfall locations, angles of approach, speeds of approach, and storm strength variables to assist SCEMD with hurricane preparedness and response planning.

Meta-Door 2.0 Coming Soon

The creation and publishing of metadata, or "data about data," is an essential element of the Caro-COOPS data management system. Metadata summarizes information on where and when data were collected, what methods were used, and points of contact for archived data; and is then made available within centralized, searchable databases to foster data access and sharing. The diverse and distributed nature of coastal ocean observing systems calls for unique solutions to metadata development.

Caro-COOPS is developing new data management tools and approaches to be used by coastal ocean observing systems nationwide. Last year, the "Meta-Door" online metadata entry tool was developed and made available by Caro-COOPS. This tool evolved from the "Cast-Net" initiative of the Southern Association of Marine Laboratories (SAML) and the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) with funding from the National Science Foundation. Development of the Cast-Net tool resulted from a cooperative effort among five regional sites: the Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences at the University of South Carolina, Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography of the University System of Georgia, and the University of Southern Mississippi.

A new version of Meta-Door, to be released this summer, will simplify the overall process of entering metadata into a central repository. New features will include:

1. A "Platforms and Sensors"module that includes locations, types, measurements, and calibration histories of observation platforms and sensor packages;
2. Data set definitions, with data ranges and quality control details;
3. A "Data Dictionary" module that allows users to standardize data types and metrics;
4. FGDC, Marine XML, and SensorML importing, exporting, and publishing; and
5. Extraction, Integration, and Dissemination Tools, to allow users to integrate and export data sets from different metadata publications.

For more information, please contact Jeremy Cothran at jcothran@caro-coops.org.

Quarterly Trends

The examples below illustrate quarterly trends in air temperature, water temperature at the bottom, and surface and bottom currents at our CAP2 station, approximately 5 miles offshore of Capers Island, SC. Visit the Caro-COOPS website for more information and data illustrating changes in coastal conditions over the past months.

Approximate averages for the first quarter (January 1 to March 15)

Air Temperature: 51.5 degrees Fahrenheit
Winds: 11 mph, from the SSW
Surface Currents: 0.5 knots toward the SSE
Bottom Currents: 0.25 knots toward the SSE
Bottom Water Temperature (~10 m or 33 feet): 50.9 degrees Fahrenheit